In January 2014, Google made its second-largest acquisition ever by acquiring thermostat and smoke detector manufacturer Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. According to Forbes, this will strengthen Google’s position in smart homes and provides an opportunity for the Android operating system to become the primary platform for the Internet of Things. The interesting question to ask is how the information obtained through smart metering and other household sensors can be used? A continuous and automatic monitoring of all electronics in a house is valuable information on an insurance object for both the pricing and settlement of claims. Connect this with the information already collected through Google Maps and Google Earth, and this would, for example, be the basis for a precise calculation of accumulated high risk in densely populated areas.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/21/will-google-enter-the-insurance-industry/